It’s difficult to grasp the projected deaths from Covid-19. Here’s how they compare to other causes of death

The numbers seem catastrophic, overwhelming, beyond a magnitude that the human mind or heart can grasp: What do 60,000 — or even 240,000 — deaths look like?

Those are roughly the lower and upper limits of projected fatalities in the U.S. from in models that have been informing U.S. policy. Last month, when the lower estimate was 100,000, the White House recommended, and reminding them to stay physically apart. This week, when the lower estimate (from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) dropped to , reflecting how well those measures are working, it stoked optimism that the epidemic might soon end with less loss of life.